Tips for Decorating Your Sliver
of the School

School's starting up again, and that means lunches with your friends, new clothes ... and a nasty, dirty, musty-smelling locker?! RED comes to the rescue with tips on making your spot-away-from-home something you'd actually be glad to flaunt in the hallway.

THE FIRST STEP

Clean your locker really well. You never know what was in that thing last year, and it's unlikely that the school janitor took more than a passing look at it anyway. Sure, you could bring in a roll of paper towels and a bottle disinfectant spray, but for a really fast (but still super-clean) method, buy some disposable disinfectant cloths (like Lysol wipes or baby wipes), and you'll have a sparkling space in the time it takes to switch classes.

INSIDE YOUR LOCKER

Create a hanging photo "ladder" for the inside of your locker door. First, choose the photos you'd like to use -- to prevent the originals from getting damaged, use double prints or print out new versions from your computer. Get two long strips of cloth, pieces of yarn or string, or even make a colored paper-clip chain, and lay them down on a flat surface running parallel to each other. Then attach both sides of your photos to the strips by clipping, taping, stapling or gluing them on. You can make the ladder as long as your locker door! Tie the tops of the two strings together. Then bring your finished photo ladder (carefully!) to school and hang it up on a hook if you have one on your locker door, or buy a plastic stick-on hook and use that.

Use your computer to make a photo collage of you and all your best friends, and print out a color copy for each of them. Then everyone in your group can hang it in his or her own locker. It's like a friendship bracelet, but this one will brighten up your locker instead of your wrist.



Does your locker have those weird air vents? Maybe you and your friends like to stick notes into each other's lockers that way. If so, you can make a mini-mailbag to hang underneath the inside vent to catch notes! Cut a piece of fabric or a piece of fancy paper (you can buy a sheet for less than a dollar in most nice art stores) into the shape in the diagram at right. Then fold it along the dotted lines, and sew, glue or staple together the edges.

So we know your skinny locker would never have enough wall space for a full-size poster. But did you know that there are lots of mini-sized posters out there just waiting for you to buy them? Get one of your fave band, and curl it around the three inside walls of your locker. It's just like having Fall Out Boy wallpaper.

Speaking of wallpaper, you can make your own for cheap. Measure the inside of your locker, then cut a piece of cool fabric or wrapping paper to fit it. Insta-pattern! You can find cool paper at an upscale art store, or even some basic craft stores such as Michael's, for anywhere from less than a dollar to about $5. You could visit a fabric store to find a piece of cloth, or buy a cool tapestry from the sale rack from a place like Urban Outfitters. Go vintage by purchasing a long skirt from a thrift store and using that retro material to refashion your locker.

Are you a diehard sports fan? Turn your locker into a shrine for your fave team! Use the "wallpaper" tips above in your team's colors. Hang up pics of your favorite player. Cut his or her jersey numbers out of felt and hang it on the inside of your locker door.

Use your top shelf as a display area for a wacky collection of whatever you want: sports ribbons and trophies, Happy Bunny stuff, plastic farm animals, whatever delightfully bizarre thing you can think of.

Slather the entire inside of your locker with bumper stickers. Leave a tiny piece of the backing on so that they'll be easy to pull off at the end of the year.

OUTSIDE YOUR LOCKER

If you're allowed to stick stuff on the outside of your locker, you're in luck! Here's a whole new surface to personalize.

Get a dry-erase board so your friends can leave messages for you. There's a good chance it'll get damaged or swiped at some point during the year, so don't shell out big bucks for a fancy one! Also, tie a dry-erase marker or two to the board so classmates don't carry 'em off.

Make a sash to wrap all the way around your locker door, like the sash a Miss America contestant would wear, and bring the beauty pageant to your school! Take a strip of fabric; glue, sew or staple the short edges together, and decorate the outside section with your name, or a title you feel you're most deserving of.

Seriously, photo stickers are one of the best -- and easiest! -- inventions ever. If you're so inclined, go subtle and just stick one tiny sticker on the outside of your locker, maybe next to the locker number or right above the lock. Or (and please make sure you're really allowed to do this), go wild and create a psychedelic, swirly pattern of the tiny stickers all over the place.